Pittsburgh Concert Memories (stadium, parking, flood)

[I_Like_Spam]

Originally Posted by EveKendall

I am so sad I missed the Syria Mosque. I have seen interior and exterior photos and it looked like an amazing place. I cannot believe it is a parking lot now.
It also must have been fantastic to see a show in the Civic Arena with the roof open.
Keep the stories coming!

I never saw a rock concert at the Mosque, but I was forced as a teenager to watch my brother play the cello for a city high school orchestra performance.


The back of the mosque was right across from the Oakland Holiday Inn

[Drover]

Originally Posted by Herodotus

When they don't bring the horns, you're usually going to get a mainly Funkadelic show. Parliament = bass and horn based funk. Funkadelic = funky guitar based rock.

Nah, they billed themselves as Parliament and played a lot of their horn-heavy staples. Just with a white hippie-dude on keyboards playing the "horns."

[Gee Whiz]

Then, of course, there was that quite memorial show by The Sundays in the Spring of 1993 at Metropol. This was the tour to support their third album, Static and Silence. Harriet Wheeler and the band were brilliant, and sounded just like on the records. The sweet smell of clove cigarettes filled the air as Harriet's angelic voice bounced off the rafters. The place was jam packed three deep even on the catwalks high above. Occasionally a band with an ethereal sound and a female singer will be compared to The Sundays. Not quite. They broke up too soon.

[jay5835]

Originally Posted by Gee Whiz

The sweet smell of clove cigarettes

If, by "sweet," you mean "acrid."

[Gee Whiz]

Originally Posted by jay5835

If, by "sweet," you mean "acrid."

No, by sweet I mean pleasant. I can respect the fact that you hardly smell cloves anymore because bars will not allow them. In the 80s and into the 1990s, clove cigarettes were prevalent in places where musicians and artists and hipsters used to hang. I always liked the way they smelled and set a certain atmosphere IMHO.

[ebyrnes]

While we're on the subject of Pittsburgh concerts, it was neat that the World Cafe did a session on our great city yesterday as part of their Sense of Place Series: Rusted Root On World Cafe : World Cafe : NPR. Cindy Howse from XPN picked some great bands to promote!

Oh, and my first concert was John Denver at the Civic Arena, maybe in the late 70s. A lifetime later, I don't care for much country music but I do still enjoy him, RIP.

[trotter_rej]

Originally Posted by I_Like_Spam

I never saw a rock concert at the Mosque, but I was forced as a teenager to watch my brother play the cello for a city high school orchestra performance.

Similar story. I was too young for rock concerts, but I did see my brother perform in CMU's Greek Sing there. His fraternity did selections from The Mikado and won the event.

[greg42]

Originally Posted by EveKendall

I am so sad I missed the Syria Mosque. I have seen interior and exterior photos and it looked like an amazing place. I cannot believe it is a parking lot now.
It also must have been fantastic to see a show in the Civic Arena with the roof open.
Keep the stories coming!

Me too. And I mean I just missed the Syria Mosque being standing, by a few months. I moved here in November 1991.

Somehow, I don't think I made it to a Civic Arena show either. I'm straining my memory here because I have a vague memory of walking into or out of there for something, but I don't recall a concert or what else I could have gone there for. Too bad.

I've hit a few of the other deceased venues mentioned though, even though I haven't seen that many concerts here overall.

Three Rivers, 1992, U2. First (and probably last, 20 years on and still not another) large stadium show. We waited in line at the stadium overnight and got field level seats, but too far back really to be that great. Everyone stood on top of the chairs. I pretty much swore off that kind of floor level seating after that, heh.

Graffiti. That's the place I miss having actually been there. I went there I think only 3 times (should have been 4, I had a ticket but was quite ill on/around the day of the show, the band was Toad the Wet Sprocket). One other time was someone giving me a ticket and dragging me along to see Vigilantes of Love. Dramarama, heh, if anyone here knows that band I will be surprised. And, of course, the Dead Milkmen, Philly's finest. These were all in the mid-90s I guess. I miss it because I don't find there to be a good venue of that size and scope in town anymore. (Correct me if I'm missing one somewhere.)

And, oh yes, the IC Light "Amphitheater". I went there once, again in the mid-90s. Plenty of pot smoking I could smell. The band that night was The Kinks. Yes, the once-great band, playing a parking lot by the tracks. Sheesh. Oh, I remember, it was during the regatta, and Ray Davies made up a little ditty "Regatta my ass". LOL Also something else made up that referenced the parking lot.

[SK360]

My first ever concert was Weird Al at a free show at the IC Light Amphitheater in 1996ish?

After that I saw Superdrag/Nada Surf/The Meices at Graffiti, what a great venue and show.

I've been to far too many shows to remember details of many, I remember Jimmys Chicken Shack at Laga, Weezer at Metropol, Smashing Pumpkins at the Civic Arena, The original X Fests, Saw the Buzz Poets a ton at Nicks Fat City... so many shows lol

[Herodotus]

My first concert was in April of 1974. The headliner was Sly and The Family Stone, with Rare Earth being the second act, and the opening act being Funkadelic, (This was shortly before George Clinton reactivated the Parliament name, and started making dance music, as opposed to the guitar rock that Funkadelic was then known for). Tickets were $4-$5 and $6. I had a seat on the floor, about a third of the way back. I remember the guy behind me had a tambourine that he beat the entire night. Sly had fallen badly into drugs by then, and had a reputation for missing concerts, which had the crowd on edge. However, he did show up, and it was a great night for a 15 year old kid to enjoy his first concert. Unlike most concerts during this era, it drew a very mixed race crowd, as Sly and Funkadelic were rockish enough to draw plenty of white fans, and Rare Earth was funky enough to be popular among blacks.